Pakistan refuses to appoint Khan as a “predator” of freedom of the press | Free Press News

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Khan’s government rejected Reporters Without Borders’ report, which listed him as one of the 37 worst rulers of press freedom in the world.

Pakistan strongly rejected a report from an international media regulator that included Prime Minister Imran Khan on the list of 37 rulers with the worst press freedom in the world.

The Khan government’s angry response was in response to a report entitled “Press Freedom Predators Gallery-Old Tyrant, Two Women and a European” published by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Monday.

According to the organization, since the 2018 parliamentary elections, “since Khan became prime minister, there have been endless cases of shameless review”. It said that during Khan’s rule, the distribution of newspapers was interrupted and the media was threatened with the withdrawal of advertisements and television channel signals.

“Journalists who crossed the red line were threatened, kidnapped and tortured,” the media watchdog said.

The Ministry of Information of Pakistan refuted these allegations in a statement on Tuesday, saying that the Khan government believes in “freedom of speech and media independence.”

In the statement, the ministry stated that Reporters Without Borders had “suddenly concluded” that Pakistan’s media was under severe scrutiny by the Khan government, which is surprising.

It said the government has been “taking all possible measures to create a suitable environment for journalists to fulfill their professional obligations.”

“The report shows, [Reporters Without Borders] The ministry stated that it tried to slander the elected representatives of the Pakistani people without any conclusive evidence.

The ministry added that it hopes that the supervisory agency “will avoid such irresponsible news reports in the future.”

But critics say Pakistan has long been the death place of journalists.

In 2020, it ranks ninth in the Committee for the Protection of Journalists’ annual Global Impunity Index, which assesses countries where journalists are frequently murdered and their perpetrators are at large.

Although Pakistan has expressed support for freedom of speech, activists often accuse the Pakistani military and its agencies of harassing and attacking journalists.



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